Fast Talk

It was only a matter of time before Google got into the entertainment biz. It will be interesting to watch how much large Silicon Valley companies will start to takeover Hollywood. I think it also shows how much people in their 20s and 30s (the target demographic of "Family Guy") consume their media online now versus on television. While its definitely hard to replace the quality of a television, a lot of young people are on-the-go much of the time, and online media fills the void quite nicely.

Are you kidding me? Alfred Hitchcock himself could come back from the dead and product a thirteen part miniseries embedded in the sidebar of all my favorite websites and I still wouldn't watch it. I like the collaboration between hollywood and new media but the delivery model is ridiculous. I think Hulu is the only website that's gotten web distribution of big studio content right...if only they added downloads they'd have it perfect.

In September, the creator of Family Guy will unveil a new project that will be broadcasted solely on the Internet, "Seth MacFarlane’s Cavalcade of Cartoon Comedy."
The webisodes (50 of these at 2 minutes each) will be distributed through Google's Adsense partners, syndicated to sites that are deemed the best spots for MacFarlane’s audience. They will incorporate advertising into them in a variety of ways.
If this does well, and it's expected to, it could definitely have longer term implications -- instead of waiting for the fans to come to them, now creators of webisodes could partner with sites to go out and bring content to the fans.

If you look at this from the viewpoint of competing platforms, its significance becomes even more profound.

Bebo and MySpace are commissioning original online series such as Roommates and Sofia's Diary to entertain their membership. Meanwhile, Hulu is aiming to become the default go-to destination for television programming.

And now here's Google assembling the components in a different combination. There's established, high-profile talent in MacFarlane, backed by funding from MRC – and supported by massive distribution from Google.

It gives the advertisers what they always complain that they can't find online. Not the targeting, but television-size reach.

MacFarlane's new show won't be restricted to just one site however large (Bebo or MySpace) but it will be, in practical terms, everywhere.

After all, what publisher would refuse to carry it?

So Google can leverage its network with top-quality content, but without having to understand and deal with the whole commissioning process. Or pay upfront for it.

And it will work. When we interviewed online TV producer Kathleen Grace, who made the comedy series The Burg, she pointed out that the episodes distributed via the Video Egg platform gained ten times the viewers that the top episode gained from the show's own site.

With YouTube already a massive presence in video, this new initiative will take the platform war onto a whole new level.

Colin Donald

Futurescape - Digital Media Insight

We don't "have" to consume our media in any one format.. With the Internet, we can consume pretty much as we want to; the restrictions are fewer and weaker, as I see it. No one "gives adults permission" to do or not do much of anything, where this ITI comes from..

Success is the only measure by which we strive to make a difference in today’s world. I am the inventor of a new technology that stands to revolutionize worldwide motile industries. Imagine if you would, a typical day in the life of an average family…
Sam is just waking to the buzzing sound of a very early alarm. Jumping out of bed, as if he is late for work, he stops and remembers the trip. After a shower and breakfast the arduous job of packing the car for a weekend in Disney is almost over and soon the family dive into the car for an 18 hour road trip. Sam and Sally are still looking like they need another couple of hours of sleep, but the girls, they are chirpier than ever. So an excited bunch gets into their new car and off they go; the morning greets them to a crisp clear day. Sometime after stopping in for lunch they decide to find a hotel for the evening and then off to dinner; Sam took Thursday, Friday, and Monday off to take full advantage of a family fun filled weekend escape.
The following morning their off again. A few hours later they hear the all too familiar words, “Dad / Mom, are we there yet?”, and finally a sign pops into view, "Disney World Next Exit" - and the kids go bonkers in the back. As soon as they calm down, and in harmony with muttering little voices, Sam looks at his wife and says, "Honey can you imagine, we have not stopped in a gas station once!", to which she says, "I know, did you see those Gas prices along the way?", "I sure did!" - he says. "I am so happy we bought our car", replies Sally. "I know sweetheart, isn’t it fantastic, we’ve only had it for about a month and have already saved well over $400.00 in gas - and not to mention our electric bill, it was $100.00 cheaper this month! His 14 year old adds, "so, that is what happens when you plug the car into the house at night?"…"that's right pips-squeak!", exclaims Dad. Their 10 year old now adds her 10 cents, "Yeah, but what is more important is that we are saving the world". Dad smiles as he thinks, “and to boot, she'll do 0 - 60 in 5.5 seconds!"… An honest depiction of this projects' goal.

It is this preamble that sets the stage for the first fully functional car that is as close to 100% family and environmentally friendly, as 100 % can get, and made from good-old USA innovation.
DEsigned to increase electric vehicle drive distances by up to 5 times, my technology will require seed funding in order to meet its development and funding needs.
If anyone knows of any Angle investors that may be interested in receiveing a proposal please do not hesitate to let me know. Many thanks my eco friendly friends.

Consumption of media is directly affected by the cost of living. We may now care less about media issues and more about our own financial issues. Suddenly media events are really less important to our daily activities . ex. if you're "Truly" remorse about the cost of fuel and how it's squeezing your budget? Start your journey to acceptance of the sitiuation by understaning how fuel works in you own vehicle. How many miles do you currently get per gallon? what can you do to get better mileage. Change your air filter, change your oil, check the tire air pressure, tune up the vehicle, don't be such a "lead foot" and do some research as to the quality of fuel you currently use. "cheap" gas does'nt necessarily save. This is the REAL media issue. Lets stop worrying so much about superficial issues and start taking stock of our own .

You see a lot of information on youtube about hho water for gas solutions. Using water for fuel to cut metals and run cars and about any type of motor using fossal fuels.

It looks to be technology that needs to be leading the way with new developments and applications for the use.

Why is this being suppressed? Or is it a hoaks?

As a whole, I welcome this development. This was inevitable and its good to know that framework for using this distribution method is in place. The model in itself is not particularly innovative. It does represent a large step forward in the maturation of entertainment products on the internet. However, most of the underlying technologies that will be used have been around for awhile, this is essentially just a round integrating various tools.

The content is guaranteed success because there are advertisers on board who are willing to throw a ton of money into making sure that the brands they represent are in front of the “consumers,” people who don’t watch old tv.

The “pay for placement/audience” strategies are more or less just an adaptation of the traditional marketing approach used by media conglomerates to push entertainment products to the masses. The difference is that with all of the tools that Google has in its arsenal, the advertisers will have accurate data on the actual number of impressions that occur, as well as the sales data that comes in from the Google Affiliate Network.

It will be interesting to see in the coming months is how Google will evaluate the partnership requests. How will they balance huge ad budgets versus the youtube brand being affiliated with boring content that could be pushed to new levels of popularity due to the “hit them with a stick” mentality that falls in place when media conglomerates have huge marketing budgets?

In the long term, I think that TubeMogul ’s Top 40 list will have more corporate media products listed in the top slots…

Can’t wait to see some data that sheds some light on the viability of this model..